Everyone, regardless of vaccination status.

• Stay home for 5 days.
• If you have no symptoms or your symptoms are resolving after 5 days, you can leave your house.
• Continue to wear a mask around others for 5 additional days.

If you have a fever, continue to stay home until your fever resolves.

You should immediately contact PDS school nurse, Alice Ball, to inform PDS of the positive test results. She will provide clarification on next steps to take.

Persons exposed to COVID-19 are no longer required to quarantine. If your child develops symptoms after an exposure, keep them home and have them tested if possible.

“Vaccination is the single best tool we have to prevent COVID-19 both in ourselves and in our communities."

Presbyterian Day School recommends all eligible members of the community receive the COVID-19 vaccine to minimize potential infections, control the spread of the virus, and protect the people around you who may be at increased risk of severe illness.

With the COVID-19 vaccine having been approved for 5- to 11-year-olds, we encourage everyone to contribute in the fight against COVID-19 and to consider vaccinating their children. A list of local providers offering the the vaccines can be found at vaccines.gov.

The vaccine does two things that help us bring COVID-19 more in line with the level of an influenza virus: It reduces severe illness, bringing it closer to normal flu symptoms, and it helps prevent further mutations of the virus. We understand that vaccinated individuals can still spread the current variants.

All symptomatic children need to be examined by their doctor, who will clinically assess as well as test for multiple conditions (flu, strep, RSV, etc). Depending on test results, the doctor may prescribe treatment or refer for COVID–19 testing. It is important to remember that children are much more likely to have a common cold than COVID–19.

The Tennessee Department of Health suggests the following symptoms are potentially COVID–19 symptoms and should apply to anyone attending or working in a school (i.e. children and adults in schools):

• Fever (temperature of 100°F or greater) or chills
• New, worsening cough
• Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing
• New loss of taste or smell
• Sore throat
• Muscle aches and pains
• Headache
• Nasal congestion/runny nose
• Nausea/vomiting/diarrhea/abdominal pain

We will notify the families of students considered close contacts and anyone else who was within 3 feet for 15 minutes or more (as well as other CDC and Tennessee Department of Health considerations) with the positive case. The positive case will not be identified by name.

If you hear there has been a positive case at school and you have not been notified, your son was not exposed.

In the event that an early childhood student is in isolation or quarantine, we will engage in age appropriate instruction required to meet instructional expectations. Every effort will be made to address the need to stay connected with classmates and teachers through Zoom activities as well as activities that will be completed through SeeSaw.

If an elementary student is in isolation or quarantine, we will engage the student in a combination of real-time (synchronous) learning experiences and some asynchronous assignments. As much as possible, a student’s day at home will mimic the on-campus class schedule. Students will use Zoom to be an active part of the classroom while receiving instruction from the classroom teacher and completing work simultaneously with on-campus students. This model not only allows students the opportunity to continue sharing in classroom discussions but also provides an avenue for student collaboration.

Distance learning will not be provided for non-COVID related absences. Other illnesses or absences due to travel will follow our traditional absentee policy found in the Student Handbook.